Henry's New Story
by InkWalking
Summary: Before writing his own happy ending and relinquishing his powers as an author, Isaac tied up his loose plot ends and wrote a new ending for Henry. The only difference. Henry's wasn't very happy. AU in which Emma escapes the tower and gets Robin and Regina to kiss only to discover the biggest problem to be back in the other world.
1. Chapter 1

_This is a plotline I haven't seen much on. Feel free to post a review with ideas, concerns, what not. I don't own Once Upon a Time so don't sue me. This is solely for entertainment purposes. I am definitely not getting paid for doing this._

A pulse of golden light encompasses everyone in the room as Regina and Robin kiss each other in front of a squealing Zelena. Emma holds Rumplestiltskin back as he desperately tries to break the two apart.

Just as quickly as they had been transported there, they found themselves lying on the ground in Storybrooke.

Emma was the first to get her bearings. She jogged down to to her loft, making note of the various people waking up on the streets.

She bursted into the apartment and was immediately scoped into a tight embrace from her parents for a moment before pulling back.

"I have to find Hook." She tells them, giving a pointed look to her father.

"He was right over there when it happened." Charming says and gestures over to where some notebooks and the storybook were lying on the floor.

Her eyes scanned the run.

"Everyone reappeared where they were before this whole mess started. He's not, you don't think he could be..."

She stared down at the floor.

The parents and daughter were all startled as a voice came out from the upper floor.

"Eh, sorry about the mess. I really needed to find that book and," the pirate was interrupted as Emma ran up the stairs to embrace him.

"Killian." She breathed and they both toppled onto the bed.

"Sorry to cause a panic." He started, "I woke up just moments before you and came up here to look for your boy."

"So you're fine? He's fine..." her eyes widened. "Where is Henry?"

She sat up from her position on top of him and looked around.

"I'm not certain. He was here before we were whisked away to that new bloody book." Killian told her with furrowed brows. "He wasn't in the story, though. Was he?"

"No, He wasn't. Isaac must have never wrote him into it." Emma answered.

She tore down the stairs with Hook right behind.

" Emma," Snow starts in surprise at her daughter's panicked expression. "What's wrong? We were about to track down the author."

"Yeah, well, it's become a hunt, now." She told her mother and pulled out her gun from her purse. She tucked it under her belt.

"Where's Henry?" Charming asked. "He was just upstairs before everything."

"The boy's not there, anymore." Hook explained.

"Hunting it is." Charming agreed.

"Henry may just be looking for us. I'm going to try to call his phone or maybe Granny's." Snow tried to reason and took out her phone.

Emma nodded her head and lead the way out of the apartment and to the street.

They almost made it to Gold's shop when they were stopped by Regina.

"Emma, good to see you're all still alive." The once evil queen said.

"You too, Regina." Charming returned.

"We can't find Henry." Emma suddenly said to her, cutting them off.

Regina's face tightened. "I had to come the other side of town and didn't see him along the way. Robin would have called me if he found him on the way to...check on Zelena.

"No answer on his phone and Granny hasn't seen him." Snow added and hung up her phone.

Regina got out her own phone and dialed his number. It went automatically to voicemail.

"That's it." Emma said. "We're finding the author and Gold."

"Gold." Regina growled. "He's responsible for this."

"We don't know that anything happened." Snow again tried to reason. "He may be looking for us just like we're looking for him and his phone died."

"I sincerely hope you're right this time." Regina told Snow.

The wind seemed to pick up as Snow White, Charming, The Savior, and The Evil Queen made there way to Gold's shop.

Charming peeked into the window and after a moment bursted in with the rest in tow.

"Where is he?" He shouted to what appeared to be an empty room.

"The authors gone. Disappeared before I even woke up." A voice groaned from the ground behind a counter.

The dark one was sitting on the floor, supporting himself on a pillar.

Killian lifted him up and slammed him into a wall.

"The boy, Alligator. Where is Henry?"

"How should I know? I woke up here just like the rest of you."

"You were the one to create all of this." Emma accused. "What? Is Henry somehow apart of your back up plan?"

Gold laughed.

"There was no backup plan other than that I've managed to buy myself time and rest assured I have nothing to do with your boy's disappearance."

Killian let Rumplestiltskin sink to the ground.

"I think I believe him." Snow whispers to the group.

"He's a liar. Always has been." Killian not so whispered back.

"He's telling the truth this time." Emma told them all.

Regina snorts.

"He doesn't know where Henry is and he doesn't know where to find the only person who knows where Henry is. Isn't that convenient for him?"

"How do you know that the boy is even missing? Unless you awoke hours before me, which I suppose is possible in my condition, you couldn't have even begun to really look for him." Rumplestiltskin asked them.

The room got silent for a second.

"We know he's not here with us." Emma finished and walked out of the pawn shop.

Regina and Killian followed her again to where she was storming.

"Where do you think you're going?" Regina asked.

"I don't know." She shouted. "I thought this was over but now..."

Hook placed his not hook hand on her shoulder. "We're going to find him."

Emma took a deep breath.

"I know. We just have to...follow his footprints. Gold didn't do it. The author doesn't seem like the type to outright take someone. Where would a boy go if he thought his entire family was missing?"

"I'm not sure if my experience will help us." Killian said.

"Home. He would go home." Regina answered.

"He's not there." Emma told her.

"He has more than one home." Regina stiffly informed an uneasily shifting Emma.

"Okay, we check your house. Where are my parents?"

"Dealing with the alligator."

"Oh, great. The two most forgiving people in The Enchanted Forest." Regina complained to melt some of the tension she had caused. "Well, let's go. We don't have all day. My son is who knows where."

Emma nodded.

It took them ten minutes to get to the mayor's house. Three of those minutes involved dodging question after question from confused Storybrooke residents.

Emma was the first to reach the porch and knelt down to pick up a rock from beside it.

"What are you doing?" A huffing Regina said as she came up behind her. Killian stood behind them both, trying to peer into the windows.

Emma held up a key.

"How did...Henry." Regina realized.

"Not that I needed it but yes."

"There's a light on in the second floor." Hook interrupted them.

Emma unlocked the door and rushed up to the second floor calling Henry's name.

She opened the door to his room. His empty room. His old night light was on the the corner. Its normally rotating sides were stuck in place, making a soft clicking noise.

"He's not here." Regina said. "If he was still in Storybrooke, someone would have found him by now or he would have found us. If he could."

Emma looked around the room and her eyes landed on where the light was shining on his bookcase.

"What's this?" She asked and pulled out a book from the shelve.

Killian read out the title.

"Heroes and Villains"

 _That's right. In this AU, the author's work in our world didn't disappear when everyone got out of the original book. Gold's condition is going to be suspended for a while._

 _R and R!_


	2. Chapter 2

"Heroes and Villains" Hook read again from the cover of the paperback book. He flipped to the back of the book. "The time has come for villains to get their happy endings."

"Does that sound suspiciously like," Regina was cut off.

"Isaac." Emma started, interrupting Regina. "He must have changed this world too."

"He could have had anything but he chose to be an author. Isn't that a little bloody repetitive?" Hook told them and tried to flip through the pages with his hook.

"How is this even possible? We should have destroyed the the book completely when we escaped." Emma asked.

"We can find that out later. At the moment, I'm only interested in finding my son," Regina said. "And ripping out the author's heart." she added

Hook accidentally ripped a page in the book and Regina grabbed the book from his hand with an exasperated sigh. She skimmed through to it, looking for something.

Emma pulled out her phone.

"Henry wasn't transported into the story with us." Regina concluded after looking around the pages.

"I think the part of us not seeing Henry once while stuck in the bloody thing gave it away long before now." Hook said back.

Regina looked up to see Emma scrolling through her phone.

"Are you even paying attention to me?" Regina asked in outrage.

Emma nodded her head but continued to stare down at her screen.

"Not that I'm questioning you, Swan," Hook started. "But why are you on your little talking device?"

Emma pursed her lips at something on her screen and made her way out of the room with a confused Hook and impatient Regina. She yelled to them from over her shoulder. "Best-selling author Isaac Heller will be having his first big book signing this afternoon _in_ Maine."

"Your talking device told you that?" Killian asked her as he stepped up his pace to keep up.

"Let's stick to what's important, please." Regina told him.

They once again made their ways back into town.

"What's your plan, Swan?" Hook asked her once they were on the familiar street center of the town.

"Why do you always ask her that?" Regina started. "Isnt it pretty obvious, even for a pirate. We find the author and get back my son."

"Why would that plan be difficult for a pirate? I've been on my own fair share of rescue missions, myself and this is by far the worst planned." he returned

"For once I have to agree with Regina, Killian. We'll come up with something on the way there but we have to find the author now." Emma said.

"Besides, all we have to move is move faster than his stupid quill." Regina added.

The group turned a corner and ran directly into Snow and Charming.

"Have you found him?" Snow immediately asked her daughter. Worry was written all over her face.

"No." Emma answered. "But we found this" Emma held out the book to them. "At Regina's house."

"It's the book." Snow said in confusion. "We destroyed this by escaping."

"It's a replica." Hook told her. "The author seems to be getting quite rich by making people buy them."

"Regina's house?" Charming suddenly asked.

"He was raised there if any of you would care to remember." Regina said. "It doesn't take that much of a stretch to think that he might go there during a crisis."

"Oh, no." Snow said as a thought came to her. "He must have been all alone while we were gone. He wouldn't have left the town looking for us, would he?"

"I doubt he had the chance." Charming told her. "And everyone's cars seem to be here and in one piece." He added.

"Look, we have to leave now." Emma told them.

"Leave? Leave to where?" Her mother asked.

"She knows where to find the author." Hook said to them. "Her little gibber device told her."

"We'll come." Charming volunteered and put his arm around his wife while she nodded in agreement.

"No, you won't." Emma said. "You need to watch Gold. Even with a bad heart who knows what he's capable of when desperate enough."

"And he IS desperate." Regina added.

"You can't just go by yourself." Snow argues.

"I'm not." Emma told her mother. "I have Hook and Regina and the author doesn't pack much of a punch."

"But his quill…" Charming tried.

"We can handle ourselves." Regina finally stepped in and told the two parents. "Believe me when I say the author is going to regret ever writing our names down with that quill."

"We have to depart now if we want to get to the booking gathering." Killian interrupted.

"Book signing." Regina corrected him.

"I'll call you guys as soon as I can." Emma said to Snow and Charming.

"Well, okay, just be careful." Snow finally gave in.

"And bring Henry back home." Charming told Emma.

"I will." She promised.

Snow waited another second before embracing her daughter and Charming joined them also.

"I love you so much." Snow told her.

"As do I." Charming added. "And I'm sorry for fake killing your boyfriend. Though, it was a very fatherly thing to do."

Emma laughed and they broke apart.

"I did appreciate that." Killian said to Charming.

"How sweet." Regina said and tapped her foot.

"We're coming." Emma told her and dug car keys out of her pocket.

"Goodbye." Snow said to the trio as they made their way over to Emma's yellow bug.

"Till we see you again." and "See you" were heard from the three along with a mumbled grunt of a bye.


	3. Chapter 3

**In case anyone was wondering, I still don't own Once Upon A Time. This was made in no way to earn a profit. Enjoy.**

Emma was, unsurprisingly, the first one to enter the large hall. She strode in stiffly from the long car ride with Regina and Killian on her heels only to bump right into the back of a long line. The crowd of people in front of them was dotted with dressed up fans and the really dressed up fans.

"They dress up for these things too. Do the people of this land know anything about the people they apparently worship." Hook questioned Emma.

"Not usually." She answered.

A man walked in from a staircase above and the crowd erupted in applause. Applause for The Author lasted longer than any of the three would care for. Though, they couldn't possible care for any applause for that man.

Regina curled her hand into a fist that would probably have been covered in flames of she were in Storybrooke.

Killian stared hard at the author for a moment and walked forward or at least tried to walk forward. He was almost immediately stopped by a larger group of book carrying fans.

"Hey! Hey, what are you doing?" One of them yelled at Hook.

"Back of the line, jerk." Another helpfully added.

"What in the bloody realms is," Killian started but was cut off suddenly by Emma.

"Sorry, this is his first book signing." She told them. Her terse tone made them hesitate to try and argue anymore.

"Whatever." The first one mumbled as Emma led Kilian back to their spot and a heavily frowning Regina.

"We're actually going to wait behind these, these...what did you call these people? Bloody groupies?" Hook asked Emma. His impatience leaking into his voice.

"This isn't the Enchanted Forest." Emma told him "We can't do anything with all these people out here unless you feel like getting arrested."

"You have so many bloody rules in this land. You might as well take away my other hand." Hook complained.

"You're going to need that soon enough." Emma looked around and finally noticed that a certain evil queen was missing. "Where's Regina?"

Hook glanced around himself. "If she's trying to get in front of those animals, I wish her luck."

Emma saw a familiar head of black hair and grabbed her shoulder to come face to face with someone was definitely not Regina. Though, the woman was wearing an _I Love Regina_ pin.

"Sorry, I thought you were someone...else." She apologized.

"Oh, it's fine. Hey, do you want a pin? I got a deal by ordering in bulk. I have like a thousand of these." The Regina look-a-like asked her and didn't wait to to put one in Emma's hand.

"Um, thanks." Emma said to the already moving on woman.

A blaring noise suddenly rang over the crowd accompanied with flashing red lights.

"Fire alarm!" someone shouted from across the room. People seemed to deflate in the hall and complained as they were ushered out of the room by security guards. None of them acted more concerned about burning to death than missing out on their hero.

"I smell no smoke." Hook said to Emma as they tried their best to make their way to the front of the room.

"Yeah, neither do I but I do think that I've found Regina." Emma told him and pointed to an actually familiar figure approaching the Author from the side.

"Bloody, hell. That woman moves fast." Hooks said to an already gone Emma. She moved just as quickly forward to her unlucky target. The author was going to get a wake up call from the nice bedtime story he had written himself.

The alarms on the wall covered up Isaac's pleas as the Emma and Killian joined Regina in their somewhat discreet cornering and dragging of him into the hall and then into a randomly chosen supply room.

Emma was the first to let loose when the door slammed, leaving them with only boxes as witnesses. She finally got to do what she had when wanting to do since the moment she had gotten out of his newest piece. She punched him in the face.

It might not have been her most graceful punch but the fist on face sound made it the most satisfying.

Isaac fell back from the punch onto one of the boxes. It took him a couple of frantic seconds to pull himself back up and straighten his coat.

"Okay, okay." Isaac started. "I understand that you are probably upset at the moment but really this is all quite funny when you think about it."

"Funny. You think this is funny. Some big joke, huh." Regina said to him with a stare promising a slow death.

"Look, you got out of that story so really the score is settled. I'll go on my way and you go on your's. This doesn't need to get messy.

"The only thing messy about this situation will be your pitiful screams if you don't tell me where my son is right now."

The evil queen was coming out right in front of Isaac and she meant business. Pulling the fire alarm instead of actually burning the building down had already left her boiling. No one. No one kept her son away from her. This had gone on long enough.

Killian kept to the side of the two mother bears, though, he too only wanted to recover the boy.

Emma clutched her fists and considered punching the man again. Although, Regina's speech had probably made him more scared than her beating.

The reality of the situation crashed onto the author as he realized the implications of what he had done.

"Your son?" He asked, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they meant any other boy than the one he thought they meant.

"Henry." Emma practically spit at him.

"Henry. You, you have to understand that this was moving personal. It was a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes." He pleaded.

"Where is he?" Regina demanded, unease was apparent in her voice.

"Rumplestiltskin hadn't had me include him in Heroes and Villains so I didn't know what to do with him." The author told them.

"Where is he." Emma echoed Regina quietly.

"He was going to ruin my chance at a happy ending." Isaac was back to pleading. Sweat gathered on his brow.

"Where is he." Emma exploded.

"Henry is gone." Isaac whispered. "Your son is gone."

It was like the oxygen in the room had been set on fire for the two mothers.

 **Cliffhangers. As evil as they are fun.**


	4. Chapter 4

Shorter chapter this time but I figured since the last chapter ended on a big cliffhanger I should throw out a bone to my readers. This way you'll get to have a few things cleared up a little quicker. Enjoy.

"What?" Emma whispered. Her world seemed to crash around her. Henry couldn't be gone. Henry has been her everything since the moment he had knocked on her apartment door. Regina, if possible, was even worse. The fire she usually felt explode from losing something wasn't there. For the first time since the poison apple there wasn't room for anger.

"I wrote him away to fit the stories so that it was like he was never born to begin with." The author stammered. he knew that everything that he had built was in jeopardy and he would do anything, anything to keep it.

"That's not possible." Hook said. It was the first time he had really gotten involved in the conversation. He had believed it would be best to leave it to the lad's mothers at first.

"I, I'm sorry but it is. You were never supposed to get out of the other book to even remember, let alone look for him again. This is all because of Mr. Gold. You have to understand that." Isaac told them, trying his best to push any blame on to Rumplestiltskin. The man wouldn't last much longer in this world anyway.

"Bring him back." Emma found her voice. "You're the author so bring him back."

"I wrote my own happy ending. I've broken the cardinal rule. I'm no longer the author and I can no longer use the pen to change anything." He told them.

"No. It's not bloody possible." Hook said again with a voice even harder than before.

"It's all true. The author can have his power taken away if he writes his own happy ending." Isaac repeated.

"Not that. You can't just write people away even with all that magic in your quill. If you had been able to, you would have done that with Emma in that storybook but you didn't. So I'm shall ask for the last time. Where is the lad?"

Regina's eyes widened. Hook may not know it now but he had just given the two women the thing they needed the most. Hope.

The authors gaze turned to spiteful.

"I don't know what your talking about." He said.

"No more lies." Emma told him.

"No more games." Regina added. "We may not have magic here but the savior over there is carrying a very handy gun that I'm feeling very tempted to get it out myself."

The fire was back in their eyes.

The author felt himself being backed into a corner.

"I'm defenseless." He claimed. "I wrote my own happy ending. I'm not an author anymore."

"I don't care what you are or aren't." Regina said back to him

That corner the author had felt before, well, it's walls were getting closer.

"I suppose he might still be alive." He finally spit out to the mothers.

"You suppose? What's really happening because nothing has been right from the moment we escaped from Heroes and Villains. I mean, the book should have been destroyed but instead it's like we just landed in another..." Emma trailed off. Strings that hadn't made sense before were finally coming together.

The author gulped. He knew what Emma's expression meant. She had finally figured out what he had been trying to hide.

"We're still in one of your books." Emma finally said.

"That's impossible." Regina tried to tell Emma. "What did he do? Put us in a book inside of a book?" Emma wasn't going to hear any of it, though.

"That's exactly what he did." Emma said and turned back to the author. "And I finally understand your play. You don't want us to find Henry. Why would you when the only way to get out of a book is to change its story?

I know it's been forever but I promise Henry will actually come into play very soon. He won't stay missing. At least he's not actually gone forever. As always R and R.


	5. Chapter 5

"Fine. We're in a book." Isaac finally admitted. How had this book signing gone so wrong for him? He should have gone far away from Maine when he had the chance but no. He was so sure that the fairytale characters wouldn't be showing their faces around here because, come on, they should not have been able to escape. Well, they're not going to escape this time.

"And Henry. Henry's in the book too?" Regina asked. She would almost prefer it if he wasn't. Nothing would make her happier than to see him right now but this was getting too murky for even her tastes. First they were in a book and now they were still in a book but the book they were in now still has the past book's story that was making the author rich.

"I don't know where the boy is." The author told them, not for the first time.

"Oh, really. Somehow I don't believe that from the man that has only lied to us." Regina said.

"How will you ever believe anything I say, then? Should I just start making places up? I can do that, not that it would make any of a difference to you." Isaac said with clear frustration.

"I'm pretty good at knowing when people are telling the truth but I'm sure you've caught on to that by now." Emma told him.

"And yet that talent didn't seem to work very well when I said your son is dead." Isaac mentions like he wants to get punched again.

Emma ignored the comment.

"I also know when people are trying to buy time and you're trying to buy a whole lot by lying to us." The savior continued on.

"Aye, I have to agree with her." Killian said. The author did seem slightly more...twitchy than he had before.

"Isn't it obvious." Regina started. "It's the wretched bells all over again."

"The bells?" Killian asked.

"There must be something that we can do to get out of this story and just like the last one we need to do it before the bells ring. Whatever the bells are this time." Regina told him. She really hated those bells.

"What are the bells, Isaac, and what do they have to do with Henry?" Emma asked.

"You know what?" Regina interrupted. "I vote we just drag him back to Storybrooke. Let's see him stay silent when I have my full arsenal."

"No." Isaac strongly disagreed. "I have a life here that I'm not letting any of you ruin. You want to know where your son is so badly." Isaac reached into his inside jacket pocket and took out a small, leather covered book. He tossed it over to Emma. "Find out yourself. I based it off of your own story. Like mother, like son. There's no way you'll be able to save him, though. As you referred to them before, the bells will ring this time."

Emma caught the book and held it in her hands. She could feel the magic surrounding it.

"Why is it so small?" Regina demanded. She looked over Emma's shoulder at it and it was a wonder that she didn't grab it to leaf through the pages herself like she had done with Hook.

"I was rushed and didn't have access to great resources. Bite me." Isaac answered. "It's not as though I had as much to write as before."

Emma opened the book. She flipped through the first pages to only see writing about Isaac's rise to fame.

"I'll just be going, now, since you seem to have what you came for." Isaac told them. The problem with being an author is that his grasps of reality must have been very altered to think the three in front of him would let him just walk away. Although he probably would have gotten away if there wasn't one more person in the room who hadn't been staring intently at the new book before them.

Killian grabbed Isaac with his Hook.

"Not so fast, mate. You're not going anywhere." Killian told him. "In fact, you might even come to use for us. You should know the story better than anyone."

"I found him." Emma yelled over to Killian though he wasn't that far away. "He's right here in the back of the book."

Emma began to read out the pages that concerned Henry.

"And while Isaac Heller rose to fame with his new book, another story was playing out not to far from him. A young boy, abandoned at birth, continued on with his life being abandoned again and again. It would come at no consequence to the world that in the days to come his life is cut short in an automobile accident."

"You wrote this?" Regina seethed.

"It's not my best work." He admitted. "It's crude and careless but I was rushed. I didn't want to write it out like that but...I couldn't just add some pretty ending to a story like that. A writer has to have some face of realism within his works."

"This isn't a story." Emma said, though she really wanted to shout.

"Yes, it is. I'll admit we are in a book but it is a book where no one else can bother you. You can settle down with your true loves." Isaac gave a pointed stare toward Regina, "The boy was lost to you as soon as I dotted the last sentence in that book."

"We've broken the spell before and we can do it again." Emma warned.

"Why are we still talking to him? The picture here tells us what...children's home he's at. Regina said. She brushed off his comment about settling down with her true love in the story. She's not doing anything without Henry.

"We're going now. Hook, can you tie him up or something. We might need him and I definitely don't want him to be able to cause any more harm." Emma asked Hook.

Hook nodded and with flourish knocked his hook against the back of Isaac's head. The Author crumbled before he could argue against his treatment or how his fans would surely miss him.

"Really?" Emma asked. She didn't actually mind at this point and Regina practically smiled with approval.

"It seemed like the most logical course of action." Hook tried to defend himself. "And he was getting bloody annoying. What kind of person goes and writes a thing like that, anyway?"

Emma and Regina shared a look.

"Don't worry yourselves so." Killian attempted to comfort the mother's. "We'll get to your boy in time. If there's one thing I've learned from my years, it's that heroes always find a way. Although, the time table from that book doesn't tell us much."

"I know." Regina told him. "I've just started to reap those benefits, myself. Now, how are we supposed to get The Author out of the building without being hounded by the firefighters probably already halfway through the building."

"It might be easier if someone hadn't pulled the fire alarm in the first place," Emma said. "But I might have an idea."

Without access to magic or basically any resources at all, Emma was left with very few actual choices. One fact did come to mind, though, when it came to celebrities.

Luckily, it applied to book worlds just as well as it did with the real world so when they were asked why Emma and Killian were practically carrying Isaac down the halls by his arms, they had a pretty good answer.

"Well," Emma answered to the second person to ask her. "It would be very bad for him if this got out, but Mr. Heller is drunk out of his mind."

Luck was on their side because this along with finding some back ways and Regina pulling yet another alarm lead to them being able to get out semi easily.


	6. Chapter 6

"I could have a concussion. You need to drop me off at a hospital" Isaac told them as they pulled the yellow bug into a small town.

"So you can delay us even more." Regina snorted. "I would think not."

The last hour had been spent with Isaac squashed between an equally frigid Emma and Hook. Killian hadn't been very careful with his hook.

"Besides," Killian started. "I've knocked around enough men to know how to be effective without getting too much blood on my deck. Though, those men had much more muscle than you."

"Excuse me if that's not comforting." Isaac complained. He shifted in his seat as Regina glared at him in her mirror.

"Here it is." Emma said stiffly, pointing to a building looming across the street. Most of its lights were off even though it was just now getting dark.

Isaac, himself, took a look at the building, sizing it up.

"What room is Henry in?" Emma demanded. The car jerked forward as Regina braked into a parking spot.

"How should I know?" Isaac asked and shrugged his shoulders with an almost bored look on his face.

"How should you know? You wrote him here." Regina mirrored in disbelieve. A very angry version of disbelieve.

"You saw what I wrote. I had no time and no patience. I left it all pretty open ended." Isaac defended himself. He was itching for any of them to get out of the car.

"Fine." Regina said. If that's what he was going to do then she would do what she rarely did and humor him. For now. "If you had to guess, keeping in mind your current situation, where would he be right now?"

"I don't know. In his bed. In his room, whichever room that may be." Isaac answered.

"It's only a quarter past seven. I doubt he's in bed so early." Killian said. 'From what I know of the boy you practically have to drag him to bed each night."

Isaac snorted.

"What?" Regina asked. She finally took the keys out of the ignition.

"Oh, nothing." Isaac said and gave shook his head.

It wouldn't have surprised anyone if Regina actually climbed over the seat to get to Isaac.

"You know what?" Regina started. "Time to get my son and I know the perfect spot to put you. How big is your trunk, Emma?"

"We aren't locking Isaac in the trunk and we can't just storm in there. People don't react well when you just go around demanding kids." Emma tried to reason.

"I'm not so sure that will be necessary." Hook said and pointed out the window to a small shadow moving across the fence.

"That could be anything." Isaac told them a little too quickly.

Unfortunately for him, Emma and Regina were already out the door. Then, they were completely out of the car.

Isaac was finally left alone to find an escape. Practically.

"Looks like it's just me and you, mate." Hook commented and reached past Isaac to slide down the car lock back down.

The boy they had been searching for, though, had the opposite of escape in mind. Not that he was exactly in his right mind.

Henry ran across the fence, keeping one hand brushing across the wall and his head down.

He was so focused on his task that he didn't notice the suspiciously cheerful colored car in front until two strange women were practically falling out of it to run toward him.

Actually, he didn't particularly notice until one of them started to shout out his name.

Two strangers calling out his name in a darkening parking lot did not cause him to stop.

"Henry!" The light haired one yelled. She sounded so utterly relieved that he considered stopping for a moment. He didn't, though. They just caught up to him.

"Henry Mills, stop right there." The dark haired one called out right as the light haired one caught up and lathed on to his shoulder.

They both ended up tumbling to the ground in a not so graceful manner.

Henry did his best to get back up, wiping dirt off his shirt. He gave up on the idea of continuing to run when he saw how they settled themselves on either side of him. The light haired one even seemed to be reaching her arm out to him like she wanted to tackle him again or something.

"I have people waiting for me right inside. They're gonna notice when if I don't show up within like two minutes." He stuttered. His lying was still terrible.

"Henry," The dark haired one started. She seemed conflicted on what to say next. "You don't recognize us at all?"

He did give them a quick glance to see if maybe he did know them from somewhere. He had had a lot of different foster families and none of them seemed to last long so it was possible.

"No," He decided. "I think I would remember you pretty well." He added but left out the part about not being able to forget someone so insane.

"This is going to sound crazy." The light haired one started. She took a step closer as though that was a good starting point to earn someone's trust. "But you do know us."

"You're not where you belong, Henry." The dark haired one told him.

Henry frowned slightly when she mentioned belonging.

"Um, that's great and all but I really do need to go inside now." He motioned to the house like to show the women that they were still in a public place that would be a bad spot for kidnapping and began to back away.

The light haired one stopped the other from following after him and spoke again.

"I know you're not you right now but you must realize that something about us feels right. You know us, Henry. You just have to believe me." She said. Emma hoped that somewhere inside of him, he knew it too. He should be at least somewhat more aware than Regina and the others in the other book. He had the heart of the truest believer of all things.

Henry did really look like he was at least going to talk more with them.

"Listen, you have the wrong person. My name's Henry and all but...I definitely don't know you and you definitely don't know me. I have to go." He told them and finally found the part of the fence he was looking for. He knew he should really go in through the front door for their benefit but he didn't want to be caught going in past curfew. Also, he didn't want the women to seemingly change their minds about just standing back and decide to come after him again.

The dark haired one noticed what he was doing and did start toward him against what the light haired one seemed to want.

"You need to come with us. You're in danger, Henry." She told him, yelling the last part as he took a hint and swung up the fence post and slipped in.

"You've got the wrong person." He added before the post slide back into place. He pushed calling the cops out of his mind. They would just bring about more problems.

Regina was going to run after him but Emma did manage to hold her back this time.

"Really?" She whisper/yelled. "The last thing we needed to do was completely freak him out and what did you do?"

"Like you didn't" Regina argued. "I was under the impression that he was your son too but you would just let him go like that."

"This might be a book, but it's the real world. We can't just kidnap him. No matter how much we may want too." Emma added.

Regina huffed and pushed back her bangs.

"Well, what now, Savior?" She asked.

Emma looked around the parking lot.

"Now, we wait till morning somewhere out of sight but still in earshot. Older foster kids aren't the type to call the police but you never know." Emma decided after a moment of consideration.

"He's not a foster kid." Regina told her. Spite was clear in her voice.

"He is for the moment and trust me when I say I know how they think." Emma told her.

Regina wasn't happy about any of it but she still followed Emma to the car. She slammed the door when she got in.

"No Henry?" Hook asked. He had seen them talking to someone that seemed suspiciously like the boy.

Emma just shook her head and much more delicately than Regina closed her own door.

"I told you." Isaac decided it would be wise to say. "You might as well give up now."

Emma was seriously reconsidering the trunk idea.


End file.
